


Stranger Danger

by mahalidael



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Car Accidents, For Science!, M/M, Paranormal, Rescue, and also the monsters are crazy ghost worms, its canon except the powers are gone and the monsters stay, strangers AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-14 13:45:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16041674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mahalidael/pseuds/mahalidael
Summary: Nico di Angelo's mother and sister died in a car crash. He almost died seconds later, but not from the crash. No, that would be too normal.Instead, a giant worm with a severed human head tried to strangle him.In this world, ghostly beings called strangers roam the streets of cities. However, they can be seen and touched by a few people called sensitives. Those people are very, very unlucky.





	Stranger Danger

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys, im writing pjo crossovers with random internet obscura again
> 
> this one is for strangers by felix kramer and j.
> 
> http://strangers.atrocityland.com/
> 
> you dont have to be real familiar with it to read this, since most everything is explained. my thanks to felix kramer for explicitly saying he's ok with strangers fanfic :)

Nico was ten when his mother was ejected from the windshield.

It happened on one of the highways outside the city. The other driver reeked of alcohol. He happened to turn a little too soon, and suddenly Nico woke up with no one in the driver’s seat and his sister next to him.

Ten-year-old Nico shook his sister. “Bianca? Bianca?”

She stared on ahead. The way the car was flipped, her neck was hanging straight down, making the fatal break hard to notice.

Something shuffled outside the car. Nico darted his eyes around hopefully, thinking it was a policeman.

It was not a man.

A small gray hand set down in the dirt outside the car. And then another. And then another, all attached to noodlelike, elbowless arms. Confused, Nico watched as a bulbous body lurched into view, propelled by its arms. It was ruddy and striped, and reminded him of an overgrown worm.

Slowly, a person peeked into Bianca’s window, right next to the creature.

Nico opened his mouth to cry for help, but the person moved upwards. He closed his mouth.

The person terminated at the neck, eyes bloodshot, blood dripping into the dirt at a rate of one drop every two to eight seconds. It did not rotate.

The person—the severed head, it bobbed in the air and moved slowly aside as the gray arms probed by carelessly, slapping broken glass, thumping against the door, hands finding Bianca. It put its hands over her mouth. It held pressure. When Bianca failed to react, Nico finally realized (even if the creature didn’t), and he sobbed.

The head returned to the window, eyes seeming to make contact with Nico’s.

The creature reached in the car further.

By some miracle, Nico managed to peel the car door open in time to get out of range. His body flopped into the dirt. He felt something wet squish against his abdomen, but he was too dizzy to figure out what it was.

He looked across the dirt and saw the full bulk of the creature.

It stood a full foot taller than he was, soft and bulging like a beanbag, but like one that was tapered at both ends. The creature itself had a face, or something that looked like a painted face, in the shape of a red-eyed grin. The severed head bobbed at eye level.

This made it very easy for Nico to rush forward, screaming, and grab it out of the air.

He slammed the severed head against the inverted side of the car. “No!” It thumped hard on the metal. “No!” He brought it down again. The bones of its nose crunched. Blood spewed into the dirt, mixing it into goo.

Nico collapsed. That was all he had in him, but it was enough.

The head slipped out of his hands, returning to its creature. It was bleeding much more than one drop every two to eight seconds, now. The creature prodded Nico, seemingly confused by the affair.

But the head, which had shown no signs of life, tilted itself twice in a nod.

The creature shambled away, and the light diminished from Nico’s view.

*

“We call them ‘strangers.’”

Nico clicked one heel against the other rapidly, and at length. The girl behind the desk—he could only call her a “girl,” since she wasn’t much older than he was—had a vase of flowers set up at her workspace. The desk had no proper nameplate, but a piece of white paper folded lengthwise, with the words “Annabeth Chase” written on it with blue marker.

On the floor, there was a lump. It was fat and pale green. It made a soft humming noise, its long thin arms like paper streamers around its head, trying to scoot across the carpet towards him. The thing was only as big as a cat.

“Is that a stranger?” Nico said, pointing at it.

“Yeah. You can touch it if you want,” Annabeth said, writing on a clipboard.

Nico approached the stranger gingerly. It wrapped its arms around his ankles and dragged itself onto his shoes. He picked it up. It was soft in his hands, like putty, and its fingers reached up and pinched his skin. “That’s a vossdrome,” Annabeth said. “They don’t do much, but they make pretty sweet stress balls.”

Squeezing the vossdrome left handprint-shaped indents on its body for a few seconds. Nico considered squeezing it until it popped, but it started squealing. He set it back down.

“Were you sensitive before the accident?” Annabeth said calmly.

“What?”

Annabeth leaned forward, as if morbidly curious. “I’m sorry—were you aware of these creatures before the accident? Any… random feelings of dread? Odd encounters?”

“No, nothing.”

“Interesting.” She scribbled some more. “It left you alone after you attacked it, and… you said the head nodded?”

“Yeah.”

“Only after you attacked?”

“If it nodded earlier, I would’ve noticed.”

“Hm.”

*

In the Half-Blood Labs database, in the entry for the  _ luxranxi rex _ , otherwise known as the lume. Edits made by Annabeth Chase are in bold:

_ Although the lume itself is blind, its severed head appears to possess vision, and thus, the lume uses the head to track and follow individuals who attempt to crawl away. It is dissuaded only  _ **_when violently attacked, or_ ** _ when it witnesses its target's death, at which point  _ **_it nods its head with a succinct acceptance and_ ** _ shambles away. _

*

Nico’s phone dinged softly with a notification. He put down his fork to check.

**_Stranger Danger_ ** **_  
_ ** _ Suspected madradrone in Weill Cornell Hospital. Caution advised. _

Nico’s father raised his eyebrows. “An alert?”

It was Christmas—six years after the accident. Hades di Angelo, being concerned about his son, had put Nico through as many therapists and hospitals his money could buy. Finally, Half-Blood Labs contacted them. They confirmed what Nico had been saying all along, that those “hallucinations” weren’t hallucinations. And then they offered him a job.

Hades was scrambling to apologize, but the rift was still felt, particularly when they ate out.

“Don’t worry, it’s not close,” Nico said, slipping the phone back into his pocket. Madradrones were violent, but they didn’t move much. It wouldn’t even leave the hospital.

Despite being in an upscale restaurant, Nico was adamant about not changing clothes. His stringy hair was just barely pulled out of his face, and a dark parka was folded next to his seat. His father, opposite, was wearing an expensive suit. Both were pale and gaunt people; bad genes.

Nico twirled his fork in the pasta. His father was looking at him, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“…But you would like to see it, wouldn’t you,” Hades said.

Nico glanced out the window guiltily. “I mean… I… yeah,” he admitted quietly. “The lab’s never had a madradrone in captivity. Their estimate is that only one spawns per year. In the entire world.”

Madradrones were also very,  _ very _ dangerous. The only reason they didn’t kill more people was that they were incredibly rare, and mostly sedentary. Nico wasn’t comfortable leaving one in the wild. Even though the lab had been very clear that his job wasn’t to kill every stranger in Manhattan—and that such a thing was impossible—every time he heard another had spawned, he got a funny tickle in his throat.

All the restaurant’s customers could see the light of the Empire State Building from the front windows. However, only Nico could see the writhing mass on top of it.

Twelve snake-like strangers were coiled around the long antenna. Even from such a distance, Nico saw the lights of their innumerable eyes scanning the city.

Hades said, “Your phone is ringing.”

It was. The thing must’ve been blaring “Crawling In My Skin” for quite a while, because some bystanders were glaring at him, and others were laughing. Nico blushed furiously and answered the phone. “Hello?”

“Hey, Nico!” Jason said on the other end of the line. “Sorry to bother you, but we’re standing outside Weill Cornell right now. You got the alert, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Chiron’s saying there’s a sensitive trapped in the hospital. Everyone else is out of town for the holidays. Except Mr. D, but he told me to suck a lemon.”

Nico looked at his father, mouthing “They need me.”

Hades made a “go” gesture, despite looking very upset about it.

“I’ll be there in a minute,” Nico said, putting on his parka.

*

“Hey! How’s candy striping so far?” Dr. Apollo Papadopoulos said to his bastard son.

Will Solace filled out a form while wiping at his cheek with the edge of his too-big volunteer’s vest. “Someone just spit on me, a psych patient clogged a toilet with rubber gloves in a ploy to try escaping, and I’m wearing an XXL vest because the one in my size has barf on it.”

Apollo laughed and slapped his kid on the shoulder. “I wish I could say it gets more glamorous, but it doesn’t. Take a break from dealing with patients and inventory the instrument packages, okay?”

Will got the requisite key card for the supply room and descended.

It wasn’t like he didn’t like hospitals. He loved medicine. He just wished he was actually treating people, not… giving directions and unclogging toilets. But, he was only sixteen; it would be a long road to a PhD.

He also didn’t like Weill Cornell  _ specifically. _ It was just unsettling at times. The floor turned up odd, pale green puddles and mysterious chewing noises and medicine bottles hitting the ground with no apparent source. As Will went down the stairwell, he noticed a large bleach stain on the wall. Bleach spots on the floor were common, but on the  _ wall? _

As he finally hit the basement, the clean hospital smell got stronger. Sweeter, almost chemical. Enough to invoke a headache.

When he reached the door to storage, he paused.

“I was born to die in a few hours and I am not sure what to do with my life,” a breathy, “but I am not sure what I am doing with my life,” reverberant, “but I am not sure what I am doing with my life,” voice said. There was a loud crash! and an obscene squishing sound.

Will sucked in air through his teeth and slid the card. “Hello?” he said, knocking on the door.

There was another crash! and sticky noises.

Will sighed. He’d have to call security. But a morbid little urge prompted him to open the door. What could be going on back there? If he didn’t look for himself, the doctors would never tell him…

Alright, just a peek.

He opened the door just a crack. “Ma’am, are you—”

A roll of roiling fat spilled out the door, as did an arm, which grabbed Will by the shirt and flung him into the room.

He hit the storage rack, and then the floor. Something big, and very  _ wet  _ was reaching its small hands towards him. Its bulk blocked the door. He found the door to the freezer. His arms were shaky, but somehow he made it, wedging himself between door and cold storage, out of the thing’s range—and my god, was it a thing.

A blob of pink, gelatinous flesh sloshed in the door corner. Its face was leaky, crying and drooling red fluid that pooled around it. The smell was unbearable. Its arms, short and floppy, grabbed hold of anything it could, slamming cabinets, breaking glass.

Will reached up at his face, fingers cold, touching the place where the glass had cut him. He hadn’t even noticed.

The creature, abruptly, tore a cabinet door off its hinges and flung it across the room like a frisbee, hitting a freestanding storage rack so hard it tipped over, the cabinet door exploding into splinters.

And, of course, it began crawling towards him.

*

Nico’s breath came out in soft wheezes. It was almost an hour’s walk to the hospital, but a sensitive on the subway was like holding up a sign that read “kill me horribly.” Ice was crusted on his face.

“Were you crying?” Jason said.

“I passed a fountain on my way here. It was full of those, uh… those weepy guys. You know the ones. Bule…drome? Droni? One of the dronis.”

They went down the stairwell, Jason lugging the top of the thirty-pound device as Nico kept a steady grip on its barrel, slanting downward. The bogulgun was a weapon of Leo’s making—designed for executions that would otherwise pose logistical issues. If they had the option, they would tie the damn thing down and lug it out the door for research, but they didn’t. Launching a large-scale operation to capture an invisible creature was unthinkable.

Jason stepped down a little further, causing Nico to almost drop it. “Careful!” he hissed.

Nico pressed his back into the bar of the basement door, carrying the bogulgun into the hallway, where they set it down for a moment. Jason balanced it on his shoulder. Nico pulled a normal revolver from his parka, concealed in the event that the bogulgun didn’t work—though Leo had once specified that if the bogulgun ever failed to work, they were probably dead already.

Prolonged sexual moaning droned from one of the storage closets. Nico felt his hand get sweaty on the revolver. “Doesn’t it only moan after it’s killed someone?”

“Hypothetically,” Jason said, but Nico could tell he was thinking the same.

Nico tried the doorknob, but it had a key card lock. He kicked it right out of the frame.

The madradrone had made a complete mess of the room. The red acid that gushed from its eyes left a corroded trail from the door to the room’s far corner, and it now squirmed in that corner, its acid eating through the wall. Its topmost arms clawed at the melting wall, its bottommost arms stroked itself provocatively.

From somewhere behind the madradrone, somebody was screaming.

“Jason!” Nico cried.

“Got it.”

Jason squeezed the gun’s trigger. A needlenosed shell darted out of it. Acid exploded out of the wound, splattering out onto the floor as the shell impacted and went inside the stranger’s flesh.

Then the shell dropped its payload: eighty years’ worth of time.

The madradrone gasped in pleasure, at first low and slow, then squeakier and speedier until it sounded like a pornographic VCR tape on fast-forward. Eighty years of acid gushed from its eyes. Nico held his breath. Partly because of the smell, and partly because it was still trying to destroy the wall. If it didn’t die before the wall gave out…

Its movements slowed back to their normal pace, not because the time dilation had stopped, but because old age was setting in. Finally, finally, it became too weak to pull at the chunks of wall, and curled up crying.

It let out a long moan. Its flesh dissolved into its own acid, the acid evaporated, and there was just a corroded patch.

Nico could see a boy in a red vest peeking out of the doorway.

“Careful!” Nico warned. “There might still be acid.”

The boy carefully hopped over the corroded areas. Absurdly, it looked like hopscotch.

As he crossed the threshold he stumbled and fell onto Nico. Nico was skittish at the sensation of a warm person against him, and elbowed him away. “Careful,” he repeated. “Are you hurt?”

The person at his elbow was around his age—much blonder, though. “Oh my god. Oh my god.” On a good day, he might’ve been healthier-looking too, but he was somehow blushing, pale, and green all at once. “What  _ was _ that?”

Jason raised his eyebrows. Nico inhaled deeply. “Um. How about we take a walk.”


End file.
